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I/O Error

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Posts posted by I/O Error

  1. jon_j_rambo: Is there any chance you're going to read the comments people are making? I'm now getting the feeling (no offense intended) that your latest comment is based more on the basis of FAITH than it is on research.

    No one can say the German Stuka was in ANY WAY "useless" after the BoB, or even during it. And quite frankly, how were the Germans supposed to win the BoB? In 1940 long range aircraft were not a reality. How CAN you effectively dogfight when you have 15 minutes at most over the target area? Much is said about the horrible mistake to switch bomber targets, but quite honestly it was not a very winnable battle. The British have radar, SERIOUSLY motivated pilots, "home turf" advantage both in terms of morale and in terms of what happens to damaged aircraft that can't return to base, and effectively full fuel tanks. The Germans had none of those advantages. I mean, if your oil line suddenly springs a leak over France, that's no biggy. If the same happens while you're over BRITAIN, that's something else entirely! Say hello to POW camp for the rest of the war, and you might not have been within 100 miles of a limey fighter. :D

    JayJay's picture and caption in Paris is actually a really quite serious point. If they were so overrated, explain to me how the Germans destroyed the biggest army in Europe and bloodied the nose of another? Stop basing your opinions on faith. We, the US, did not enter the war in 42 and "lay the law down", get serious! I admit the comment is amusing and pithy, but it is not accurate.

    [ November 15, 2002, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

  2. Originally posted by Andre Bolkonsky:

    By attacking the fleets at the spawn points, can I assume the French/UK fleets were waiting in position for the Italians to spawn, and then popped then on turn one? Or did you park over the spawn points and force battle that way?

    Just curious. Nice thread. I wish you had more details on your maneuvers.

    No, I did the first, moving the fleet into range of the spawn points. Unfortunately, it was a "thought of the moment" plan I hadn't prepared for and so probably half the French fleet was there along with a really quite paltry UK presence. Not surprisingly, it didn't go well since I was actually outnumbered. Ah well. :D
  3. Originally posted by General Billote:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />He did the gamey tactic of attacking Italy at its fleets spawn points. I will be hard pressed to keep any navy

    Gamey!!!! Gamey!!! Come on, My friend, if one doesn't fight dirty than one doesn't fight at all! tongue.gif </font>
  4. I can understand that method (I still use it myself, sometimes). The Axis Minor armies really are pretty wretched, and in any major offensive they honestly just take up space better used by more seasoned German units.

    However, there is one big problem with conquering the Axis Minors, and that is that their cities and production facilities will peak at 80% efficiency, the standard for conquered nations.

    (Frankly, I sometimes find that very annoying. For instance a sub war in the Atlantic is almost always fought from the ports of Brest or the other one south of it. And you're telling me the max for those ports is 8 supply? Please... :D

    [ November 14, 2002, 01:46 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

  5. Originally posted by jon_j_rambo:

    1) The Germans were OVER-RATED !!! I'm tired of hearing all the bull-crap about their generals, equipment, planning, engineering, pretty uniforms, etc. ANYBODY CAN DEFEAT UN-ARMED COUNTRIES. Poland, Low Countries, & Baltic States don't count.

    Countries like Norway and Yugoslavia were unarmed? (Plus half a dozen others) My, the things I learn! :D Okay, if attacking small countries doesn't "count" in your book, consider the success the Germans enjoyed in almost every situation where they achieved anything REMOTELY like parity in arms and numbers. Pound for pound, nobody liked fighting the Germans. If nothing else, consider how long it took to win the freakin' war! God's TEETH man, six years is a long bleeding time!

    Remember: Everything from modern operational tactics to our standards of leadership to the military helmets of half the world (USA included) came DIRECTLY from the Germans. Overrated? I think not.

    2) The SS were OVER-RATED !!! Big-deal shooting women & children. They hid behind the lines, until a nice soft spot was available.
    Agreed... assuming you really ARE talking about the SS, and not the Waffen SS. Waffen SS, that's another story entirely. Some of the best soldiers in the entire war...

    Random story: After the war, a lot of the surviving Hitler Young and Waffen SS types signed on as mercs for people like the Foreign Legion. (What else did they know to do? They were crack soldiers, but nothing else) My dad actually served with an entire base of these guys in Vietnam, after they were seconded to the US Army Special Forces from the French.

    (Yeah, that's right. Count the years: Most of WWII, all through the 50's fighting in Indochina, and then with us up until the early 70's. Holy christ that's impressive, LOL) Best troops he's ever fought with, my father claims.

    3) The Stukas were OVER-RATED !!! Anybody can bomb somebody who can't shoot back.
    I disagree. It's hard for me to see the Stukas as being anything other than really quite extradinary dive bombers. If they had been better protected against air attacks, they would have been truly unstoppable. As it was, they were a fearsome opponent.

    4) The War @ Sea is UNDER-RATED: It took brass balls to go out in the middle of the Atlantic in some U-Boat.
    Oh hell yes, agreed there. Hate the side they fought for, but by GOD those German U-boat sailors are worthy of honorable memories.

    5) The French are weak: UNTRUE!!! Look at all the wars they had been involved in over history. Vietnam, Napolean, <snip>, Dark Ages crap, French & Indian, etc. Yes, the got their ass kick in WWII & are a little whimpy now, but over the big picture they have fought well.
    You know what's funny? All those past wars you mentioned in your "Big Picture" they LOST. :D Couldn't you at least have mentioned wars they did well in, for instance their experiences in the Hundred Years War?

    Look, the French just do not have a good combat reputation as of late, and it's not JUST a recent phenomenon. (Don't worry, I'm not forgeting their successes after WWII in the colonial battles, but ya gotta admit their reputation is seriously tainted.) Although stereotypes are just that, some DO have a big grain of truth to them. I claim that the one about the French happens to be one of them.

    9) The fire bombing of Dresden is UNDER-RATED. Everybody talks about "The Nukes" which makes sense. But hell, fire-bombing people to death worked.
    The Dresden firebombings (and the Tokyo ones) still stand as being either War Crimes, or just one sliver away from that. Not to say I wouldn't have dropped the bombs myself if I felt it would do any good, but history has since judged that neither action really DID anything. It was an article of faith post-WWI that mass bombings on civilian targets would lead to rebellion and total civil collapse.

    It was disproved many times in WWII, and thus we have one HELL of a lot of needless blood on our hands. The magic of 20/20 hindsight, it's a bitch.

    10) And, finally, I think the Allies could have save alot of lives if a different attack was used instead of D-Day. It seems like the history books (& movies) emphasize the whole battle revolved about the landing areas & keeping them secret. Alot of allied body bags were used. Could there have been a better plan than D-Day?
    There is little point in claiming something if you can not put forth a counter argument. Do YOU have any better suggestions? I don't. It was close to the supply lines in Britian, it was close enough to make a mass invasion possible with little warning, it was relatively poorly defended, and it enabled France to be retaken quickly, which was both a military and a political necessity.

    [ November 14, 2002, 02:59 AM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

  6. I don't know about necessarily slowing down tech. I've seen a LOT of cases where tech advances won't come for blood, sweat, tears or curses. :D What I'd really like is to see luck take a smaller hand in the whole business, I think that's what we need most.

    Gearing limits... God yes, if there's anything we need it's THAT, lol. "There goes an army, time to make a brand new one all in one week! What's the current young males population? Who cares!" ;)

    [ November 12, 2002, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

  7. Yup, Carl writes that all himself. Not too shabby at all, eh? :D

    However, don't start thinking it's meant to be a recitation of history, it's a historical RETELLING. (Carl, I still have serious issues with that whole "Raid on Brest with a full Corps" idea. ;):D )

    I particularly like those quotes from Churchill, Carl. How many of them are exact, how many are made up, how many are "tweaked"? They're all great, this one in particular.

    And god dammit, stop making Molotov chuckle or stutter or whatever the hell is next! :D The dude was a rock!

  8. I love my computer, and it loves me. I treat it like a second girlfriend. I don't beat it, it gives me that sweet sweet loving. Errr... something like that. :D

    I've alwayed treated my computer(s) as living things, operating under the assumption that if I'm kind to its software environment and hardware, it will be kind to me.

    Freaky thing is, that actually WORKS.

  9. Originally posted by satchel:

    No one needs morals, but Clinton has more compassion, kindness, and love in his heart than Bush is capable of.

    Umm... and that is useful in the leader HOW exactly?!

    I should like to draw your attention to Machiavelli's The Prince, it is useful for a leader to be SEEN as liberal and kind, but it is not useful (or safe) to truly BE such.

    A Prince (aka President, PM, King, etc.) can not HAVE the luxury of personal morality or kindness. (Clinton lacked the first anyway, lol) A leader's honor is inextricably bound to the honor or his country, and so his own personal needs become subordinate. I would not TRUST a leader willing to put personal morality before the needs of his people. What is good for his country is good for him, and such defines his actions.

    [ November 08, 2002, 04:34 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

  10. Originally posted by Carl Von Mannerheim:

    I dont think that the French Reistance shuold be included. Their activities were not on the same level of the slavs

    CvM

    No no no, you miss my point. I certainly don't want the French Resistance put into SC, I think it would be a bad idea. What I was pointing out was what most Partisan groups were REALLY good at, attacking supply lines. That includes the larger groups in Russia and Yugoslavia. Do you think that Partisans are represented well in SC?

    [ November 07, 2002, 11:42 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

  11. Yes, and what of groups like the French Resistance? Absolutely terrible in the open field, they made an absolute mess of German communication and supply lines, contributing measurably towards Allied success on D-Day and afterwards. SC simply does not model that at all.

    Even those more professional partisans didn't engage in stand-up fights with the Wehrmacht, that would have been insane!

  12. Originally posted by Jeff Heidman:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by SeaMonkey:

    Yep! At least this "Simpleton" has simply more moral fiber than the last guy in that position, something this whole country/world could use a dose of.

    Good point. Clearly all of America's problem are directly related to Presidential fellatio.</font>
  13. ev, statistics are all very nice until you run into outrageous cases where things do NOT follow probability.

    For instance: In the TCP/IP game I'm running with CvM, the USA has had 5 research chits in industry for over a full year.

    It's still 0, lol. They've gotten plane advances, but absolutely nada for industry. Conversely, Russia and UK got industrial tech advances NOT LESS than once every two turns.

    1940 and UK is an industrial powerhouse? Excuse me?

  14. Yeah, as it stands Partisans are hardly a drain on MP points. No competent human player leaves cities undefended by a corps, and no full strength corps in a city can be defeated by partisans. Honestly, they're quite worthless against anybody other than the AI. They need to be a long term thorn in the side.

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